1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wire bending apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, there are various wire bending machines such as an NC bender, an exclusive-use machine, and so on.
FIG. 1 shows one example of an NC bender, in which one end of a workpiece 1 (a wire) is held by a work chuck 2, the work chuck 2 is advanced (moved leftward in FIG. 1) to set the workpiece 1 against a bending segment 3, a fixed clamp 4 and a movable clamp 5 are actuated, and the movable clamp 5 is rotated in a direction indicated by an arrow to bend the workpiece 1. These operations are subjected to NC control. A bending angle and a bending direction are set by the amount of rotation of the movable clamp and rotation of the work chuck 2, respectively.
FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b) show an exclusive-use apparatus for bending a workpiece 1 into a crank as exemplified in FIG. 2. Workpieces 1 are taken out by carrier loaders 6 and are successively transferred to exclusive-use benders 7 for bending thereof.